Majority of in-house legal teams still stuck in pilot phase of AI use – survey - The Global Legal Post

Sign up for our free daily newsletter YOUR PRIVACY - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY DATA PROTECTION STATEMENT Below we explain how we will communicate with you. We set out how we use your data in our Privacy Policy. Global City Media, and its associated brands will use the lawful basis of legitimate interests to use the contact details you have supplied to contact you regarding our publications, events, training, reader research, and other relevant information. We will always give you the option to opt out of our marketing. By clicking submit, you confirm that you understand and accept the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy While most corporate legal teams have adopted AI legaltech, less than a third are using it at scale, according to an Axiom report. The Axiom 2026 GC Report showed that 96% of in-house teams have adopted AI in some capacity, but only 31% have initiated wide-scale implementations, with two-thirds of legal departments still working through pilot programmes. Sara Morgan, chief revenue officer at on-demand lawyer service Axiom, said the market is at a threshold moment, with teams caught between those pilot programmes and transformation. Axiom says this reflects the challenges in-house teams face when it comes to integrating AI into legal workflows. Almost half of respondents (49%) cited the ‘bewildering’ number of AI providers as a barrier to legal AI tech adoption, while 33% said multi-year contracts with AI vendors are too long and 10% said they had no time to research or adopt the technology. The data also showed that AI productivity gains remain modest through the tech rolled out so far. More than half of respondents (53%) said they had only seen around an 11% to 20% improvement in efficiency by using legal AI, with just 14% saying they had seen a 21% to 30% improvement (the highest level of efficiency gains reported). Another 32% said they had only seen between a 5% and 10% improvement in efficiency. Axiom says this reflects that without adopting AI at scale, current use is only delivering incremental performance improvements rather than transformational change. Lingering concerns over security, accuracy and expertise are also slowing adoption. Some 44% of respondents said data security is their top concern when it comes to adopting legal AI, followed by accuracy and reliability (43%) and implementation costs (40%). Another 35% said they were concerned about a lack of internal AI expertise to make effective use of the technology. When asked about the top five capabilities that would define best-in-class legal departments in 2027, AI and technology expertise ranked first – underscoring the gap legal teams need to close if they want to scale up AI adoption from pilots to wider use. In addition, with nearly all legal departments (90%) saying they continue to face pressure to improve efficiency, 25% said they plan to increase their use of technology and automation to ensure their budgets stretch further. The survey was based on more than 500 responses from senior in-house legal leaders in eight countries. Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]